TURN OFF THE MUSIC!!!

If ‘The Rap Genre’ has not influenced the sense of decency in the last two generations of African American-Americans, what is that has dropped the belts of both men and women below their buttocks. What is it that has made the wearers of the clothes think that such dress is ‘okay’...rather than an act of indecency? What is it that has the practitioners of rap participate, and advocate the disparaging, and demeaning of African American women. I say African American women because they are most important to me, and regrettably, the artists practicing this ethnic and gender smearing are those who look most like us.

Our music has historically been a vehicle for our survival. The owners of the music industry have turned our music into a vehicle to demean an entire people. Those owners will not sign contracts with artists who do not practice what the owners want to have ‘preached’ into the minds of our children.

Believe it, or not. Many, if not most, of the people who listen to this music, listen to little else. Many African American who live in communities do not have access to radio programming that offers a positive state-of-mind regarding issues beneficial to African Americans. We do not realize that is us who has control. We don’t realize, because it has to happen one person at-a-time. We each make the decision to listen..., or not to listen.

What would we do without ‘that music’?

Music no longer ‘lift us’. Music demeans, and denigrates us..., AND we ‘sing it’. Our children embrace it. Our children have adopted the manner of dress practiced in the prisons of our nations. Could this be, because that is what they see when they visit their loved ones who are in prison? Could be this is the manner of dress taught to them by their relatives and friends returning to the community from imprisonment? Their shoes are untied, or have no laces at all. They walk the streets holding up their pants as is common in prisons where belts are no allowed.Some say it is the practice of ‘Men Having Sex With Men’.

‘Men Having Sex With Men’ is considered by the HIV/AIDS Treatment Community as a separate category from ‘Homosexuality’. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter when it comes to dress. Only now, our children have adopted it as ‘the acceptable thing to do’.

JWC, I think that were about 30+ years too late. The damage has already been done since Rap/Hip Hop which originated in New York in the late 70's and flourished in the mid 80s has caused the corruption for the present young generation, their now 30 - 40+ year old parents and their children, the next generation.

But on the flip side, the music will be turned off soon since Rap & Hip-Hop is currently on its last legs and declining.

The American corporate music machine and it's White executives have made trillions and squeezed all the money that they possibly could out of that over riped rap/hip hop lemon since all the major rap/hip hop acts (Grandmaster Flash, Run DMC, Jay-Z, Diddy, LL Cool J etc) are now 40+ year olds, looking at other entertainment opportunities (with lesser quality artists left to take their place) and don't have the same appeal and the audience (especially the White audience who bought the majority of the music) that they once had since their fans are also 40+, are now spawning into mature moms and dads, who are now are in the beginning/middle stages of adult responsibility/accountability with families of their own and having "buyer's remorse"....... The multitudes of body tattoos, piercings, gold grilled teeth, baggy pants/dress, hip hop/rap "slanguage", strippers, prostitution, pimping, rape, drugs, sexual freedoms of all types, abuse/degrading of women, violence, crime, gangs, deep debt/no money, lack of education (high school & college), f*ck the police, f*ck authority, f*uck the parents and the extreme selling of that subculture by the White music corporate: planned lifestyle and commercialized strong imagery of those rap and hip hop entertainers that indoctrinated our youth's minds just like Rev. Jim Jones, Jonestown, and his cyanide laced purple kool aid concoction that caused death all over his compound and that same rap/hip hop concoction has also spread it's popularity poison all around the country and the world.

And one of the worst things that it did was break or killed the historical linkage of Black music.

Rap and Hip Hop owe their entire world and existence to all those great Black musical acts from slave chants, gospel, jazz, blues and soul/ R&B, who actually sat down with their God given internal vision and skills of music: wrote and created those lyrics, hooks and beats (with real, trained and experienced musicians, singers and bands) that these rap/hip hop artists heavily sampled over and over and over again, used up, made and lost, their multi millions.

And now that the water well has dried up due to overuse, nothing new added to the table, and no other trained and experienced musical creativity except through electronics; computer generated, assembly line type beats that are technology based and not "from the head & heart" mentally based, now these rap/hip hop artists are venturing into other genres; White, Hispanic etc music and what other ethnic groups have musically created in order to bite from them to"extend the life" of rap/hip hop music since it is now stands on wobbly legs in terms relevance: huge losses of CD sales, fans, concert profits, market share and value.

And the puzzling part? What contribution or legacy of great music has rap/hip hop left behind? I can still listen to Maliah Jackson, Muddy Waters, Ella Fitzgeraled, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Luther Ingram's "When A Man Loves A Woman" or Teddy Pendergrass' "Close The Door" or Parliament Funkadelic "Flashlight" and countless other hits from the 40's, 50's, 60's to the 80's, still be amazed and still groove and pass the music forward to other generations but can rap/hip do that with a multitude of misogynistic songs like L'il Jon's "Get Low", Snoop Dog's "Gin & Juice" or Khia's "My Neck, My Back, My P*ssy and My Crack.....exactly what do you, as a responsible adult, raising a family and teaching morals and values, along with coming into their own self maturity, do with that?

Rap/hip hop fans love it but can you pass this legacy on future generations, as older people and feel comfortable listening to and talking about it?

And yes there are Alicia Keyes, D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, John Legend and other neo-soul artists but their contribution is small compared to the huge mass of rap music and all it regional forms of explicit & misogynist lyrics degrading women all across America that will not go over so well when that hip hop fans is 40+ years old and beyond.

I can see the family reunions of the future where we were witnessed to our drunk uncles dancing to Rufus Thomas' "Funky Chicken" and we danced to Marvin Gaye's "Got To Give It Up" and future older rap/hip hop drunk uncles dancing to Dr. Dre's' "The Chronic" or aunts dancing to The Ying Yang Twins, Whistle While You Twerk" trying to "drop it like it hot" and your legs and knees give out since you have now accumulated bad health and an extra 50+ pounds of tits, stomach & ass.

Has a severely deep hole been dug that Black music cannot go readily forward or get out of? Had the greed for corporate dollar bill and non-musically/non-instruments/talented or creative Black artists killed Black music and it's future creativity?

In the future, do Black artists now sample the rap/hip hop songs they created by those sampling of Black music acts which will now be used as "the new Black rap/hip hop music samples" going forward?

The fact that rap artists, who have hardly any or no musical/instrumental/singing/song writing skill or ability except to write rhymes on a note pad over established beats and hooks sampled over and over again to make a hit? And if they don't have those beats & hooks, they are dependent on a computer program to generate them since hip hop artists can't read or write music.

If it wasn't for that computer, then many superstar rap/hip hop artists and producers would be completely lost since they failed to learn how to (or didn't care) to read, write or understand and music.

What does all those 50's - 70's music acts have that rap/hip hop don't?

THERE ARE/WERE HIGHLY QULAIFIED & TRAINED MUSICIANS, BAND MEMBERS, PRODUCERS, ARRANGERS AND SONG WRITERS WHO LEARNED MUSIC: COULD READ, COMPREHEND AND WRITE MUSIC...Smokey Robinson, James Brown, The Sounds of Philadelphia, Motown, Stax Records, Isaac Hayes, Lionel Ritchie, Aretha Franklin etc. who created the classic hits and hooks and beats that rappers and hip hop has used up and exhausted.

And if you think about Black music and it's history, the ability to write, compose, produce and arrange music was developed since the slave era until the early 80's and what did rap and hip not do?

Keep up. LEARN TO READ, WRITE, COMPREHEND AND WRITE MUSIC.

And because of that inability to read & write music, it has now become a lost art in Black music and there are also no actual Black bands or musicians in rap/hip hop but one: The Roots.

Rap and Hip Hop has no musicians; no drummers, guitarists, bass players, percussionist, key board players, horn players, conga players etc, only a DJ spinning an old 70's hit and a rapper (with 5,000 people on stage hyping the crowd) with a mike so in addition to not growing Black music forward into the future for the next generation (our kids), we have lost our future Black musicians with instruments for the next generation since high school is the start of musicical training but since all kids of today want to do is rap and wish for "American idol" and make a video to help sell the song, then Black American is stuck in a severe rut musically.

What does the future of Black music looks like when the old school jazz and soul/R&B singers and musicians all leave planet earth and all we have left is rappers and hip hop artists with no musical training or talent at any level?

The very few neo-soul artists today can't do all the musical work that rappers and hip hop artists didn't do or chose not to learn.

Black music has no current bands left in the rap/hip hop era of your age and White/Hispanic and other ethnic music never abandoned it. Blacks were the only ones to not keep up the musical training, youth training, college training and the tradition of musical instruments playing and song writing.

And for every soul/R&B artists that we lose, there are no replacements.Just how far is just having that suppose to carry Black music into the future?

I know that I sound like a vinyl album with a deep scratch in it, skipping and repeating but please forgive me, this shit really pisses me off.

So yes JWC, the music will turn off...but another question is, when will Black music with it's historical roots and traditions, ever turn back on?

You're sitting here worried about the fact that the future of black music is gone?

You've got bigger things to worry about than that. Hip-hop/R&B music for the past 20+ years has given racists/racialists a permanent media library from which they can use in their minds as confirmation that black Americans are subhumans.

Combine that with the state of black America and you can just imagine the various policies and eugenics programs that have already been created, but just need an event to slowly or quickly get them underway.

Do you understand what is going to happen to black Americans in the very, very near future?

You're 20 years too late. Its over. The high rate of black women becoming breeders of feral children has sealed the fate of the black American ethnic group. It made it a hell of a lot easier for the music industry and hollywood to hijack the minds of black children.

The majority of women aren't smart to begin with. This includes those who are married. Therefore they have absolutely no business trying to have out of wedlock children.

-------------------------------------But on the flip side, the music will be turned off soon since Rap & Hip-Hop is currently on its last legs and declining.

The American corporate music machine and it's White executives have made trillions and squeezed all the money that they possibly could out of that over riped rap/hip hop lemon since all the major rap/hip hop acts (Grandmaster Flash, Run DMC, Jay-Z, Diddy, LL Cool J etc) are now 40+ year olds

-------------------------------------

What in the universe makes you think that hip-hop will just disappear just because some of its artists are in their 40s? That is just too dumb. There will always be another idiot wanting to become a rapper/hip-hop artist. That garbage music genre is here permanently.

I blogged on another Afrcian American web site tailored for African Americans and I noticed that on these sites there are a lot of racist Whites who are members who only function in life is to spew their racist hate and views on various subject that they choose to respond to..

And what they do is find atricles (any article about Black folk) posted by the site and they rush to either be the first to comment on the posted article or within the first five responses in order to "gatekeep" the conservartion or guide the responses and conservation towards their White racist responses, therefore trying to water down the valid responses and steering other bloggers towards their racist tirades where all comments are either "n*gger this or cracker that" in response to them and my response back to you should be along the same racist lines therefore taking me off message and throwing back at you.......naaaaah,..... I don't think so.

And eventually all the responses stop because folk get tired of the foolishness. And the funny part? The racist Whites think that they now own the site because of their gatekeeping!! How stupid and funny is that?

It seems to be flawed & tired stragety that get their juices flowing, gets their rocks off for the racist Whites on the sites the very same way that you get your White rocks off here doing the exact same thing....calling people subhuman etc.....like you're gonna piss someone off....come one man!!!...be bigger than that!.......so I don't know if this is taught behavior or the fact that you just can't help your White racist self. And I remember once that you said that you are Black but I'll say the same thing that my late uncle always said.........."Nigger, you White!!........

Maynard J., me and the rest here all know how you are so....were used to you being the "resident racist guy" (you gotta have one on every site).......... so no problem with your racist thoughts.

Maynard J. I am trying to confer and have a serious conservation and dialogue here but I excuse you (I did that a long time ago)....we all know that you have faults and you can't do better and you "love the racist angle thing".......by the way: get better material...... it's gotten old.......so I'll just laugh to myself and wait for some sensibility in though and logic from someone else.

Don't you get tired of being the racist guy? The AfricanAmerican.org idiot? I'm gettin' tired for ya and if you're going to contribute, contribute something worth while instead of your last 3 threads that you posted in which you could have just put together in a single thread.

Come on man!!!

But we all know that these types of "how dare you!" responses is what you're all about so.............once again, no problem.......I'll just wait....and we all know that you're a hard headed White boy and you'll be back.

You can't refute a damn thing that I said. Instead you sit here wildly screaming "you be racist" as if that is going to help black Americans. You've just been told what kind of danger black Americans are in, you ought to worry about that.

Maynard J., I don't "refute" with racist White people. It's a waste of my time, my electricity and it gets you nowhere.

I just love it when they get pissed off....... I guess "gatekeeping" at the entry way didn't work huh?

You see MJ, this is the kind of dialogue that you want from me and all here, you poor, dumb uneducated bastard.....so I will give you some more for your "racist entertainment"....as follows:

Maynard J...my man....typical racist response...and watch it, anger will only flare up your sun tanned, embedded skin cancers (those red spots and black moles on your back, chest, face & neck)...hope you have your required pack of Band-Aids to cover them all up .......and like I said MJ, get new material!...you're boring us......and I'm still waiting for some "sensibility".....I'll just be patient....

You're sitting here worried about the fact that the future of black music is gone? You've got bigger things to worry about than that. Hip-hop/R&B music for the past 20+ years has given racists/racialists a permanent media library from which they can use in their minds as confirmation that black Americans are subhumans. Combine that with the state of black America and you can just imagine the various policies and eugenics programs that have already been created, but just need an event to slowly or quickly get them underway. Do you understand what is going to happen to black Americans in the very, very near future?

And I thought neantherals evolved into thinking humans. Nope! I was clearly mistaken. They are STILL no-thinking unproductive violent homo sapien sapiens undeveloped. They still use primitive behavior to barely survive in a now technology driven environment. Once again, they are SLOW to catch up. To indicate that homemade eugenics have any merit other than being a racist excuse to discriminate...is just plain focking stupid. And is why.....neantherals i.e.modern day white men have no real history of intelligence. Only a long turbulent legacy of violence and stupidity. As in this case.

Quote by Maynard: "Yeah, yeah, you can whine about "he be racist" all you want, but it still doesn't change the facts and reality of what I wrote"............

You sound just like a home schooled, 7 year old educated by your mom with public library books with that adolescence rant of a statement, Maynard J., and that's why I won't respond (and the fact that you are a racist) or in your words, "refute" because you're weak, paraplegic in thought, insufficient and typical of uneducated White racists.

Your weakness truly amazes me.

And typical of racist Whites, when you don't have the leverage of using racist remarks to get your point across. get under someone's skin, and unable to suck others in to engage into your racist diatribes, then you end up in the situation and position that you are current in right now: can't get what you want from me, you're lost verbally and literally with no where to go with inadequate defenses. And when White racist reads, hears or realizes the truth about them and their ways, they take a momentary pause, just like you're doing, Maynard J...typical White boy/girl realization.

"Yeah, yeah, you can whine about "he be racist" all you want, but it still doesn't change the facts and reality of what I wrote....what in the fuck is that? A reason for me to respond to you, give you credibility and allow you a opposing viewpoint in order to validate you?

You American White racist hillbilly crackers are all the same. Your totally dependent on your "being" (and that includes Black folk like you (since you said that you're Black but I don't buy it) to justify the stupid bullshyt that you write and I am supposed to take you seriously because of your "being",,,,,,you have no insight, no ability, no foresight, no historical knowledge and you lack the basic common sense in order to engage me and make me readily respond to you....your racist game is tired....and as I instructed you before....get better material.

As I said before maynard J, you poor, dumb bastard....give it a rest...you don't qualify: you're out of your league....you can't rile me......and as usual, you'll respond with some more dumb shit for me to chop and edit......and since I'm watching a movie at this moment, I'll wait for another typical racist response....but then again, isn't it past your bed time?..Doesn't home schooled racist crackers have to get up early before sunrise?.....you stupid m*therfucker.

Yeah, yeah, you can whine about "he be racist" all you want, but it still doesn't change the facts and reality of what I wrote.

Reality??? And who's reality is that?? Yours??

This "reality" that you're talking about ....

Reference Maynard J:

You're sitting here worried about the fact that the future of black music is gone? You've got bigger things to worry about than that. Hip-hop/R&B music for the past 20+ years has given racists/racialists a permanent media library from which they can use in their minds as confirmation that black Americans are subhumans. Combine that with the state of black America and you can just imagine the various policies and eugenics programs that have already been created, but just need an event to slowly or quickly get them underway. Do you understand what is going to happen to black Americans in the very, very near future?

... assumes that Black people give a flying f*k what's in the minds of racists like you!! As Ms. Koco has said ... is not as if y'all are in any way important ... or even smart for that matter!! Our empowerment is not predicated on anything about you or anything you do or think or say!

You white people crack me up with that chit! Just because you think that Black people are an inferior, "subhuman" species ... what?? Is that supposed to make it some kind of reality for you?? And I suppose all us Black people are, what ... supposed to just play along!?!?

ROFL ..... You know, your ancestors have been thinking that same thing for the past hundred years now. You'd think y'all would figure out that it has never worked out well for you!! But y'all are just hard-headed. In addition to being really ignorant. And kinda dumb. All out stupid sometimes.

But ... make no mistake, Maynard J ... Black people are NOT who you think we are. And never have been. You and your racist friends are NOT in control, anymore. And the sooner you realize THAT "reality" ... the better off you will be.

Quote by JWC: "The artists you named in the group with Keyes and Legend ARE the 'tie-back' to what our music should be about."

"The plant is not dead."

"The lesson of Hip-Hop is the ownership and management of your own talent."

JWC, yes, the plant is not quite dead (but it needs a good nourishing thunderstorm at this moment) and all that you say is true but I wish that it was all conducted in a more professional and civilized manner.

Despite the ownership and management lesson, it could have been conducted way better in terms of environment, atmosphere and better overall influence.

Rap/hip hop, despite it's roots in the streets and ghetto's of the inner cities, did not or could have left alot of the baggage behind or examined that baggage for the rats and roaches; living out and creating a lifestyle that lost so many talented people at the end of a gun barrell, fighting, abuse, killing others or go to prison over music? A music genre that made it mandatory for those things as a part of the equation to susceed in the music/business genre and pass that on to the Black youth of America as the example of success?

I know that in the earlier eras of the 50's through the 80's, racism, drug and alcohol was the culprit for many artists but they did not purposely use violence; defame each other, seek out and purposely pull the trigger on each other or go on a "prison stretch" for an increased fan base, record sales and profits? That seemed to be the "fine print" part of the contract that they signed with these record labels and that's part of the ownership and management example that no one needs especially our youth.

And for those tie-ins like Alicia Keyes and others, there are not that many and the consistency in which they come out with new material is far and few between and I don't care about the other money making "side" stuff: the clothing lines, the alcohol sales, the restaurants, the acting etc...that's all good (and sets a good example for others to follow) but it's not the music and as with all successful and talented artists as time fastly creeps, some make it through the lean times and some don't and these ranks are very lean with very little fat.

I read a recent article about neo-soul artist D'Angelo, one of the pioneers and most successful of this genre and after almost ten years without releasing a new CD, he stated that he is working on new things and will release a new CD next year.

Ten years? For Prince, that's 10 new musical acts and 100 albums!

And you're right. The damage to our community is very, very deep, even when we "make it"

I read a recent article about neo-soul artist D'Angelo, one of the pioneers and most successful of this genre and after almost ten years without releasing a new CD, he stated that he is working on new things and will release a new CD next year.

Questions: Hasn't D'Angelo been drugged out on herion[sp] for the last ten years? That's what I heard. Is there truth to this? Or was he just burned out like many newcomers?

Quote by Koco: "Questions: Hasn't D'Angelo been drugged out on herion[sp] for the last ten years?

Ok, maybe choosing him wasn't such a good thing but anyhoo......Here's the scoop:

D'Angelo's critical and commercial success both have dramatically and disappointingly impeded in recent years owing to his descent into drug addiction.

In January 2005, D'Angelo was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana. possession of a controlled substance, and driving while intoxicated. He pleaded guilty to the DUI and marijuana charge and, on April 13, was given a fine and suspended sentence and his driver's license was revoked.

On September 12, he received a three-year suspended sentence on the cocaine possession charge. On September 19, 2005, just a week after being sentenced for cocaine possession, D'Angelo was critically injured in Powhatan County, Virginia, when the SUV he was driving hit a fence, ejecting him from the vehicle. He was not wearing a seatbelt. In August 2006, D'Angelo is confirmed to have exited a rehabilitation stint on the island of Antigua.

On August 10, 2007, D'Angelo was sent to court on charges relating to the car accident. These charges included reckless driving and driving with a suspended license. He pleaded guilty to these charges and was ordered to pay a $1,250 fine, in addition to forfeiting his license for 15 months.

He also received a nine-month suspended jail sentence. Early on the morning of March 6th, 2010 Archer was arrested and charged with solicitation after asking a female undercover police officer for oral sex at the intersection of Greenwich and Horatio streets in the West Village of New York City.

Hardcore rap and neo-Black exploitation movies were instrumental in brainwashing an entire generation into believing that they were thugs, should carry guns, should be in a gang, that they would get rich selling drugs, etc.

I really do not think that it was in any way coincidence that once it became clear that African Americans had created a medium that extended throughout the entire planet, it just so happens that only the most vile, sexist, criminal, sexual and idiotic messages would ever be the one to top the charts, get the most PR and record deals. I don't think it is coincidence that all the rappers that had a message, something positive to say, relevant political philosophies, etc., would never make it on the charts, got no PR and extremely rarely go record deals.

Once the art of Rap had been thoroughly exploited down to damn near nothing but pornography, violence and stupidity, it has been no more than an instrument to brainwash and socially condition generations into self-fulfilling prophecies of under achievement, deviant behavior and thought processes, violence with little or no remorse; that along with "New Jack City" type movies constantly being about the only box office hits supposedly about Black life.

After Rap took off like wildfire, it was evident that this new genre of entertainment was not only entertainment, but it was the one thing that was becoming it's own universal language and communication system, one as prevalent as the world wide web, in that it was reaching young people all over the globe, it was reaching ALL people all over the globe, regardless of racial, religious, and socio-economic differences. Now who do you think would want to stop that? People all over the globe were beginning to know and/or understand that we had more in common than we did in differences. It would have only been a matter of time before a universal realization would have manifested of the truth of oppression and all the world's ism's; and the powers that be just could not have that. With young people desperate to be famous or rich, or whatever, there would be a never ending source of talent to pull off the demise of Rap.

At this point all I can really do is AMEN what has already been said! Yes, our music did take a wrong turn .. a bad hit! It took a hard, swift sucker-punch right in the side by unethical, unscrupulous, slimy, unsavory fat-cat record execs who saw a chance to concoct a fabricated competition between music artists ... and exploited the negativity of that to increase their profits.

Growing up in L.A. at the inception of "Rap" music was a lot different on the West Coast than what was coming out of the East. There wasn't the hardcore, supposedly 'socially-conscious', "f*k the police and white people"-type of tone to what we were listening to. Rappers like Kurtis Blow, Grandmaster Flash, Whodini, and Kool Moe Dee based their lyrics more on a competition of talent against other rap performers ("How You Like Me Now", "The Show", "Five Minutes of Funk", "The Breaks") and were much more creative when it came to original music/beats to back up their songs.

Unfortunately, the record companies decided it would be more lucrative to cause a rift .. and then competition between who had the better sound ... the East Coast vs. The West Coast .. at which point, many of those artists (from the West) gave way to newer, more antagonistic and violent-sounding artists and groups who better perpetuated the "war on words" that morphed into the denigration and filth that became hip hop/gangster/thug life. And from that point on the quality of our music dropped like a lead balloon. And took at least two generations of our children with it.

It's not that good music wasn't out there ... after I was forced to stop listening to the radio because of the crap that was being played on it ... which was hard because music is (still) a lifeline for me! - I turned to CDs and live-band clubs where real music was still being played. But what was commercialized and publicly-disbursed was the worst of the worst .. financed by enemies of our communities - and, as sunnubian said, globally presented us in the worst possible light.

I used to watch international *rap* videos pretty regularly, and, interestingly enough, most of them were nothing like what was being produced in the states! Some would be in English, but a lot were performed in the native tongue (and there were some from all over the globe (Asians, Africans, Spanish, Arabs). Never did you see bikini-clad/half naked women, simulating sex while being talked about like a dog by the "artist" who was performing. Most of them were themed around simply singing and dancing, with fully-clothed performers .. and very little violence, sex, nasty foul language, over-indulgent extravagance. With most of those countries having control over TV and radio and having 'acceptable standards' for entertainment that kind of degenerative behavior was simply not allowed.

Through the activist efforts of folks like the Rev. Al Sharpton and other Black organization "leaders" I believe that hip hop is experiencing a well-deserved demise. It may not disappear completely, but it will no longer be the unfortunate force it was in the past. The "R&B/neo-soul" genre is coming back and will replace that hip hop crap in popularity. Especially with the 'coming of age' of the audience group it was targeted at. They will grow out of it. Although the damaged that has already been caused will not/cannot be easily (if at all) reversed.

We just have to take that lump and move on.

However .. that doesn't mean that the high quality and talent of yesteryear's Black music will return. Many of today's current crop of what is considered talent/entertainment couldn't carry a note in a bucket!! As long as our young people are WOWED by visual popularity (Beyonce) over real quality and exceptional singing ability (Anita, Gladys, Luther) .. it may be a long time until we get back to the same kind of creativity, quality, originality and excellence that has defined Black music in the past, brought us forward through hard times, and comforted, consoled and empowered generations of people of all races.

But ... they say what don't kill you will make you stronger. And ... our music hasn't "died". And neither have we. We/it got knocked off track ... true enough .. but, as always, we will set it back right, repair any structural damage and continue our movement onwards and upwards! We still have beautiful music to enjoy and to offer the world. It may be "old school" .. but, it's what we have until a better "new class" comes around.

But ... they say what don't kill you will make you stronger. And ... our music hasn't "died". And neither have we. We/it got knocked off track ... true enough .. but, as always, we will set it back right, repair any structural damage and continue our movement onwards and upwards! We still have beautiful music to enjoy and to offer the world. It may be "old school" .. but, it's what we have until a better "new class" comes around.

No our music will NEVER die...just evolve into sumthing else dynamic. It is our legacy. The next generation of blackfolks are gonna blast our music to a newer and fresher level of genius! It is in our genes. And it is our tradition to do so.

Oh no...D'angelo...baby! What happened to you? I just WISH it was some way we could just take our children and fold them neatly in our community as they climb up the ladder of success. Cuz this is evident that NO ONE had D'Angelo's back! He was out there alone....much like Tiger is now. I hate to see this....although I knew he was heavily on drugs. I. really. hate. to see this. Cuz it confirms how much we need to encoach our young people and fit the problems that are continuous and slowly killing not just us as a people but "us" as a dynamic culture. Simply. Tragic But! I'm just sayin

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